What do you think is the IQ of your average Trump supporter?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Link to tweet

20 votes, 1 pass | Time left: Unlimited
	120 or above
	0 (0%)
	110-119
	0 (0%)
	100-109
	1 (5%)
	90-99
	5 (25%)
	80-89
	7 (35%)
	70-79
	2 (10%)
	69 or below
	5 (25%)
	1 DU member did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[Orrex]

1. IQ is a highly accurate measurement

of how well people do on IQ tests--nothing more.


Having said that, I would say that being a Trump supporter doesn't necessarily mean that someone suffers from some organic mental impairment, but it does suggest that the person has made the deliberate choice to ignore objective reality, thereby concluding that an unhinged, unqualified, narcissitic, pussy-grabbing, woman-hating, homophobic bigot is the best choice to lead the free world.

And that does indeed strike me as rather pointedly stupid.


Disclaimer: my preferred term for describing Trump supporter is (and remains) "Idiot racist fuckheads."

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. I believe 70 is that number that should you fall below you couldn't pass a driver's test.

[Orrex]

6. Well, an IQ test is a blunt instrument, so it should be used with care

When the test score is used to deny people rights or privileges, we must immediately suspect the integrity of the test.

"Literacy tests" aren't too far removed from that kind of shenanigans, for instance.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. I'm not suggesting I Q tests should be linked to driver's licenses or any licensure.

I am suggesting that a person who scores below seventy on an I Q test is going to be hard pressed to pass a written exam to get a driver's license.

[Orrex]

14. Well...

As long as we're not saying "You got a 70 on this IQ test, so no license for you."

If the exam is structured fairly, and if the person fails the license exam, then the person doesn't get a license.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. I would never suggest linking an I Q test to any kind of licensure.

My poll was a bit tongue in cheek. Your point about standardized test taking is well taken. That being said IQ is roughly correlated to certain tasks. You're not going to get a PhD in Engineering from MIT with an IQ of 78.

[Orrex]

18. True, but at the other end of the spectrum...

I went to high school with people whose IQ tested significantly lower than mine, but they're now earning a substantially higher income than I've managed (and often they don't have usurious student loans to deal with, too).

So at the end of the say, who was smarter?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. Are you content ?

BTW you can't ignore emotional intelligence which I am a big fan of.

[Orrex]

21. Yes, but I could have been a bit more contenter.

People like to say that money can't buy happiness, but it can certainly buy off a lot of stress and unhappiness.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. When I was in grad school the smartest person I knew read Wittgenstein for fun.

I would have only read that dense stuff if I was forced to. He was smart enough to marry a prominent area manufacturer's daughter and work for him.

[MLAA]

51. Agree, well said.

[dawg]

3. I think they are average, to slightly above average.

They are politically-minded people who are engaged with the electoral process. Just because I disagree with them doesn't mean they are stupid.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. Do you believe this woman wore her shirt to her local MENSA meeting?

Link to tweet

[irisblue]

25. & too f-ing cheap to have a better t shirt made.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

27. To wear a shirt like that you must have self esteem issues.

[dawg]

32. No, I'm just saying it wouldn't surprise me if she scored "average" on an intelligence test.

Hell, it's possible she could be really smart in some ways.

She's probably a terrible and short-sighted person, but that doesn't necessarily mean she'd flunk an intelligence test.

[MoonRiver]

4. Having given IQ tests for 20+ years, my guess is that most are Low Average.

But I actually know many who are at least Above Average, some in the Superior or Very Superior ranges. That observation has to do with the academic crowds we hang with. Overall, I think there are relatively few in those higher categories.

[Afromania]

5. Which IQ?

I'm pretty sure their collective EQ ranks at the absolute bottom of the barrel. No, scratch that, it's in the dirt under the barrel.

[heaven05]

7. A majority

at 45 or below......

[yardwork]

8. According to a study linked here yesterday, the average Trump voter is white. Period.

Trump won among whites at all income levels and ages. He won bigly with white men and he won among white women too (but little, like his hands.)

So, it looks like the average Trump voter is WHITE.

As a white person, I have to own that. Whites often speak of non-whites as being representative of their "communities." (As in, why doesn't "the black community" do something about such and so!!!111)

By that standard, "the white community" had better step up and figure out what's wrong with so many of us that we would vote for THAT for president.

We can't blame this on imaginary illiterate people in the hills.

[DetlefK]

10. This is not about IQ. It's about self-delusion and authoritarian and racist preferences.

The IQ measures your ability to solve problems of a certain difficulty in a certain time. That has little to do with politics or racism.

For example, there was this Nobel-price-winning physicist in the Third Reich who was such a rabid Anti-Semite that he refused to accept Relativity because it had been invented by the jew Einstein.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Lenard

[lunasun]

11. It would be thier EQ that is collectively low IMO

[randr]

13. Remember, 100 is the mean

Half the population has a mental capacity of less than medium and medium is not all that bright.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. Not to be pedantic but 100 is the median. The mean is the average.

But what you said was correct.


BTW, the mode is the number that appears most often. 70-79 is winning the poll. That strikes me as about right, just smart enough to get yourself in trouble.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

17. My 4 and 6 year old Granddaughters.....

Have higher IQ's than most Trump voters. They can even speak in coherent sentences.

[L. Coyote]

20. USA Avg. IQ: 98 -- World ranking: #9

https://iq-research.info/en/page/average-iq-by-country/us-united-states

This illustrates how biased IQ testing is and how controversial it is.

Are Bush Voters Really So "Dumb"?



One of the reasons standardized tests like IQ tests are so controversial and so disliked is that certain minority groups tend to score lower than average on them. I'm not here to defend these tests, or to theorize why these groups score lower on average (and there are many convincing and reasonable explanations); I'm merely pointing out a well-known and universally acknowledged fact. Specifically, that Native Americans, Hispanics, and African-Americans tend to score slightly lower on tests that measure or approximate IQ.

Why bring up this uncomfortable fact? Well, look at the map above again. In particular, look at New Mexico, Texas, and Mississippi, as examples. All three of these states were won by Bush. But certain counties within each state voted for Kerry. In New Mexico, as the map reveals, the northern areas went for Kerry. Yet northern New Mexico is where most of the state's Native American reservations are. Thus, Native Americans tended to favor Kerry. Now look at Texas; the state went almost entirely for Bush, except for the area along the Mexican border, which has a high concentration of Hispanics. Thus, it seems that Kerry got a lot of Hispanic votes. Now on to Mississippi: mostly Bush, except for the counties that border on the Mississippi River -- counties which are majority African-American. (The same principle applies to many other states as well.)

It doesn't take a genius to see where this is heading. IF you accept the validity of IQ (which Kerry supporters unearthed to prop up their "Bush voters are dumb" thesis), and IF you acknowledge that certain minority groups, for whatever sociological and economic reasons (poverty, language barriers, cultural differences), score slightly lower than average on IQ tests, THEN you can come to only one conclusion: that those residents of "red" states that are voting for Kerry are the ones with the lower-than-average IQs. Which means that the higher-IQ residents of many "red" states are the ones voting for Bush.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

23. My poll was tongue in cheek.

That being said homogeneous populations score higher than heterogeneous populations. That's just a fact. I would argue I Q is more of a function of nurture than nature. Many Trump voters had every environmental advantage and squandered them.

[sarisataka]

33. I have researched IQ

Tests and factors this year.

I had the opportunity to take actual IQ tests administered by a licensed psychologist. Unlike online tests, it was a variety of written, verbal and physical tests over several sessions.

We also discussed how the tests work, the limitations and factors in developing IQ.

Your point, nature v nurture, is partially correct. There are several natural factors, not all of which can be directly quantified, which combine to give an individual a theoretical maximum IQ. This would include things such as genetics, birth and internal cranial capacity.

Nurture and development affect how much of that theoretical maximum is developed. This includes everything from childhood home life to nutrition to educational opportunities.

Additionally there are the factors of the individual's test taking ability, the skill of the test administrator/evaluator and cultural background. The psychologist admitted that in the past the tests did tend to result in a reduction of score of non-whites. Despite changes to the tests and methods this has not been fully rectified.

One last Factor is the tests become increasingly imprecise the farther then subject varies from the norm of 100. Many psychologists believe the tests are too inaccurate above 130 and should instead consider how many standard deviations the subject is above or below 100

[DemocratSinceBirth]

37. I have had this debate before with some really bright people.

I have had this debate before with some really bright people, people with PhDs in Applied Mathematics. Your point that IQ is partially genetic makes sense and is empirically correct. The problem is that some infer from that fact I Q has a racial component. I would argue that it just suggests your IQ was limited by the IQ you inherited from your parents whatever race they were.

I find Thomas Sowell's rebuttal to Charles A. Murray and Richard Herrnstein's Bell Curve persuasive. Ashkenazi Jews score highest on IQ tests yet many Jewish refugees who came to America in the early part of the twentieth century tested at borderline retarded. How did they go from worst to first ? I would argue it was nurture.

[sarisataka]

39. Correct

I did ask the question directly if there is any indication race hasa genetic tendency towards higher or lower IQ. Her answer was an emphatic no , there is no empirical evidence indicating such.

The genetic component is simply smart parents tend to have Smart children. However due to dominant and recessive genes there is no guarantee likewise lower intelligent parents may give birth to a genius.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

40. Also I Q is randomly distributed within races.

[L. Coyote]

42. Not to mention, there is no such thing as race. It is a mental construct, nothing more.

In fact, anyone who claims there literally are races is a racist by definition.

[sarisataka]

43. That too is correct

Her mentioning that the distribution of IQ is not a perfect bell curve. Some analyses show an unexpected dip in high IQ offset by an unexpected bump up in very high IQ.

It is believed this is an artificial error being generated by the tests and the administrators who will unconsciously interpret the tests to bump people slightly higher than their actual score. Apparently there is some subjected / interpretive input into the scoring which test administrators must be careful to handle according to the guidelines and not allow personal bias to influence it.

I found it ironic that the psychologist did not know her own IQ. Since she received training as a test administrator prior to taking the test she is now disqualified. Her inner knowledge of the test and scoring system could allow her to influence her score artificially.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

47. I never took a formal IQ test

I did have a psychiatrist ask me to interpret a series of metaphors and then he made an inference about my IQ from my answers.

I did take the GRE. I did really well on the verbal portion, not so well on the mathematical portion.

[sarisataka]

50. For the most part

There is no reason to take the actual test. Estimates for personal curiosity are fine.

In my case it was connected to diagnosing whether or not I had adult ADD.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

53. The psychiatrist actually nailed my IQ just by asking me to interpret several metaphors

Because it correlates with my GRE score.

I had ADD as a child but that diagnosis wasn't available then. They called it hyperactive.

[Mendocino]

24. Trump fans

fall between slightly higher than an amoeba, lower than a sea slug.

[sarisataka]

26. I would vote

For a range of 90-110

[tymorial]

28. I am very uncomfortable with this post

It is bigoted and elitist.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

30. I plead guilty to holding Trump voters in contempt.

Trump voters voted for an anti-semitic, racist, nativistic, transphobic, Islamophobic, sexist, and misogynistic White Nationalist. I plead guilty to holding them in contempt. They will get no quarter from me.

If you believe holding people who enable such a man out for criticism makes me "bigoted and elitist" there is nothing I can do to disabuse you of that notion.


P.S. I just noticed my poll included an option for high IQs so you are actually casting aspersions on everybody who voted for a low number.

[tymorial]

34. Holding trump voters in contempt is perfectly fine

I certainly do. This post however suggests a link between the behaviors you outline and a person's IQ. This is the same correlation made by racists and white nationalists when discussing crime statistics and incarceration rates.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

38. I Q is correlated to different outcomes.

There are a lot of really bright people in the hoosegow. See Bernie Madoff . But your point is a fair one. I would argue many Trump voters had every environmental advantage and squandered them. Even if you ignore all the negative attributes Trump has , a person would have to have an intellectual deficit to make such a mercurial man the leader of the free world.

[krispos42]

29. Lemme check my thermostat...

75.

Yup, sounds right.

[defacto7]

31. Between 69 and 120

[Mariana]

35. The most fervent Trump supporter in my family

has a very high IQ. Unfortunately, high IQ does not make one immune to propaganda. He listens to RW radio and Fox News constantly.

[malchickiwick]

36. 88 --of course.

(It's a neo-Nazi thing.)

[sarisataka]

52. .

[Squinch]

41. moran

[left-of-center2012]

44. My cats are smarter.

[sdfernando]

45. The IQ scale doesn't have negative numbers so I'll pass /nt

[Oneironaut]

46. I think stereotyping Trump voters as dumb is incorrect and possibly harmful.

Trump lied to and lead people from different walks of life. They weren't all knuckle-dragging idiots. There seems to be a tendency here to place all Trump voters into this tiny box. They aren't all the same.

Also, casting yourself (not the OP, but in a general sense) as smarter than an opponent instantly makes the opponent an underdog. Nobody likes arrogance. Real intelligence is respectable, sure, but comparing IQs is extremely off-putting.

I always dislike threads like this because they reduce politics to being a simple war between "the smart and the stupid." The reasons people still support Trump are many among different groups of people, and it isn't so simple.

[milestogo]

48. The vote is not weighted according to IQ.

[ismnotwasm]

49. Normal IQ

Anecdotally, a host of mental and emotional issues that destabilize their core personality, leading a kind of fear-based rigidity in their thinking to become less compassionate, less tolerant and less curious. Dogma suits them well because of the structured lines that alleviate their fears.

In other words, they are bigoted half-crazy chickenshit assholes with Mommy/Daddy issues.

[exboyfil]

54. My entire row of engineers happily voted for Trump

For many it was about guns, abortion, and the Satanic Hillary Clinton.

They would score well on an IQ test.

[TheBlackAdder]

55. Average Americans. Many wealthy and poor, educated and not. Just weird intersectional backgrounds!

[LuvLoogie]

56. I don't think it's an IQ thing. trump ran a bigoted campaign, and people went with it.

They chose trump in callous disregard to all he disparages.